I wanted to like this more than I did as I became a great fan of Falcone after reading Cathedral of the Sea. The book just felt overly ambitious in its scope and the rise and fall of its protagonist tiresomely repetitive. The subject matter was rivetting - post-Reconquista Spain - but I found it difficult to warm to most of the characters or find credulity in some of the plotlines. ( )

a great story, slightly unbelieveable at times, but evoking what it must have been like after the fanatic catholic spanish finally got round to expelling all the moors from spain who had been living there for many centuries. one of the first recorded crimes against humanity? ( )